stratocaster

I was a resident of Rayong/Ban Chang from 2000 to 2020 when I made the best decision of my time in Thailand to move to Bangkok. The Eastern forum was never the most active forum on TVF but there was an active pulse. So after celebrating the new year I thought I would revisit the site. Why is it now totally dead? For example the last restaurant post is 2 years old.

Just walked past a used car tent. December 2023 BYD Seal with 4000 ks. 45,000 baht suspension upgrades. Wrapped with clear film and 45,000 baht carbon fiber accessories. 1,1 million baht. Even as a petrol head I am tempted. Thoughts?

You don't mention it but can you charge at home. The only question pertinent to owning any model of EV anywhere in the world is can you charge at home.

A youtuber with 7 years experience of Thailand and lives in That Phanom is on a great adventure, as he calls it, to the south of Thailand. Today he passed a Buddhist Lent procession and he had to make a comment on where the lady boy was, who should be dancing at the head of the procession . Also the three ladies in national dress would not be happy at you and your American mate passing a WOW "Sexy Lady" comment. If you know nothing about Buddhist rituals keep your comments to your self and your visitor friend. The person I feel sorry for is his wife who has spent her entire adult life in the States and passes no comments. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6Wzz4ax7qM&t=595s

In a nutshell, land owner sells property to Government for a price. Government issues 99 year lease to buyer for a price. After 99 years property reverts back to Government. So property never leaves Thai ownership, which as we all know is the most important thing.

From the Thai media. The group, Thai BYD owners association have petitioned the government about the unfair discount practices that have seen some members claim that their BYD EV has lost 340,000 in the last12 months on resale value. Also they were promised from BYD, free charging at dedicated charging points which turn out to be only open at certain times and normally there is a large queue.

Here's my rant. Came across a Farang utuber's, "I know everything about Thailand" channel, who posted with the clickbait title "Thai visa run to Vientiane". Was curious to find out if there was still anyone applying for a visa, how long to get an appointment etc, if you can just get 60 days cost free VE. As suspected after watching 15 minutes of this total drivel it turns out he is actually doing a border bounce using the Nong Khai crossing. Another rant. Another Thailand guru has posted his trip using the new Bangkok Vientiane direct train. Unfortunately he only says that you clear Thai immigration at Nong Khai. No mention of if you have to leave the train. How long the stop is. If you have an overstay to pay is it possible to pay. If you have an Evisa for Laos is there a Laos check point to get stamped in thereby saving time to head directly to Vientiane instead of staying with the train and heading 20 kilos north of town. And of utmost concern when entering Thailand what is the customs routine. What are the chances of a couple of suitcase of Beer Lao going unchecked.

To show the other side this is a 1,00,000 baht CONDO with swimming pool and top notch gym 800 meters from MRT. 32 sq meters

To give an idea here is a Bangkok APARTMENT not a condominium asking 200,000 baht and yes it is in the boonies of Bangkok. 30 sg meters

A situation that has been overlooked is that this could just be a scam to offload these cars in Thailand. Remember they are all according to the police and customs road legal here. I would imagine that the owners are the insurance companies. Are they going to go to the bother of recovering these cars back to the UK, or just hold an auction in Thailand and repatriate the cash received back to them. These "supercars" are only of high value in Thailand. Here are some values at auction of a couple of these cars,stolen recovered no damage. BMW M4 2017 UK value 14500 pounds sold for 5100 pounds. Mini Cooper 2017 UK value 10000 pounds sold 3000 pounds Range Rover 2017 UK value 23500 pounds sold 20000 pounds Nissan GT-R 2017 UK value 68000 pounds sold 35000 pounds. These are the prices as valued by the insurance company who entered the auction directly.

My Farang neighbor had his house and various land plots under the 51/49% company. He fled Thailand after having been caught exporting drugs to the UK. His house remained unoccupied. 10 years after he fled, his house was seized by the government and auctioned off.

If you are interested in the current state of returning expats to use the NHS I suggest you view a British Thai based utuber called Steady Eddy. Ed Sweeny was diagnosed in Thailand with a brain tumor. He was medivaced to the UK by his insurance company and put in to an NHS hospital. Today he complained that he has been in the hospital for one week and no treatment has been carried out. But he does say he understands there are waiting lists and he can not jump the queue. He demanded an MRI scan to see if the tumor has grown. The scan confirmed it had.

The reform party is not registered as a political party but as a business whose majority share holder is N Farage. They are not subject to "normal" rules regarding donor discloses. How do you think at the last election illegal secret donations were able to bypass the election commission.

Just remember the Thai based American utuber who mounted a 100 pound? solar system on the roof of his 70 year old mothers trike as he was worried about range, it tipped over whilst doing a turn breaking her hip. Luckily the 500,000 baht bill was crowdfunded.

My wife who is a house builder in Thailand recommends that you never build a roof in Thailand that has valleys. Every valley is a source of a leak. Hips are bad enough due to the ridges cracking over time etc. Look at the roof immediately above the entrance steps. You have a huge rainwater runoff from the roof to the left that lands on another roof then flows downward to the left to a solid wall. There looks like some sort of gutter system to catch the runoff. Remember in Thailand rain falls horizontally most times, not vertical so plan your roof accordingly.

And R Sunak the Prime Minister of the UK could not even be arsed to stay to the end. It was more important to record a fluff piece on why he lied at the debate regarding Labour's 2000 pound tax increase.

Never mind by-elections, look at the polls released for the general election. Even before Nige threw his hat in the ring the (not withstanding the fact that his grifting position with Trump is possibly in dire straits due to Trumps convictions) the Tories were on to their worst loss in 106 years. At the present stats, even Rees Mogg the quintessential figure of conservative 1860 values that only ex Etonions scholars have the intellect to be permitted to run the country, will lose his seat. Also Grant Shapps whose IQ has had to fight a running battle with my shoe size is in jeopardy. But do not write off the willy fox our Nige. Even though he has suffered the ignominy of 7 election defeats including a defeat from a dolphin he has picked possibly, the best chance of victory in Clacton on Sea. A 1 year old documentary set in a gents barber shop reveals the following comments."We voted for Brexit to stop all immigration the Tories have done nothing". Clacton was the highest proportion of leave voters of any town with 70%, with immigration as the number one reason "This Conservative government has done nothing to reduce immigration. "There are more Turkish business's than white business" . "It is shocking that the most popular fish and chip shop in Clacton is run by Turks and white people use it". Also the town with the highest obesity levels, mobility scooter use and actively able, but inactive workforce.

OK I know it is not Pattaya but it is sobering all the same. REIC figures for Cha Am 2034. No new condo developments have been launched since 2016. At the present uptake rate it will take until 2023 to clear the backlog. There are 3200 units completed and ready for transfer today. Samples. 1. condo build 2018, 124 units built, today 79 units available today. 2. condo build 2018 536 units built 241 available today. 3. condo built 2021 207 units built, 155 units remain available today.

From the REIC. In the first quarter 2024 7000 new condos were sold. 31 percent or 2200 were priced below 2 million baht.

From an aviation website Nine years old with 30,000 flight hours The two A380s, HS-TUE and HS-TUF, were the last to join the fleet in October and November in 2013. They have both been put up for "a market survey to find potential buyers for the items listed" on a website called Thai Aircraft Trading. However, "The actual sale will take place under the business reorganization plan and would require approvals of relevant stakeholders and the Bankruptcy Court." HS-TUE has flown 3,691 flight cycles and just over 30,600 hours. HS-TUF is not far behind with 3,589 cycles and just under 30,000 hours. There is no initial asking price listed, but we can assume that as far as superjumbos go, it would be a bargain and far below the list price of $390 million. So what are the chances of Thai actually making a successful sale of it? To be frank, close to non-existent. The only A380 to successfully transition to the second-hand market was the one that went from Singapore Airlines to Hi Fly in 2018. https://simpleflying.com/airbus-a380-for-sale-25-million-dollars/ If you happen to have a spare $25 million, you could become the proud owner of an Airbus A380. One of the giants of the skies was recently listed on Controller, a well-known aircraft buy and trade website, by the California-based CSDS Aircraft Sales & Leasing. Two aircraft listed are suspected to be the two Thai airways aircraft offered for sale. PS The 777 200's are all 16 years old.

It is interesting to view the Bank of Thailand index figures for property classes. Taking the class of Bangkok detached houses we find that in 2011 the index was 100. Last week the index was 150 based on mortgage loans granted. The bank also state an index figure accounting for property inflation, this figure is 128. If we generalize this figure to percentages you could say that in the last 13 years Thailand has seen a 50 percent rise in Bangkok detached house values, but factoring in property inflation it is a 28% rise or an average of 2% yearly. So if you are a landlord renting a detached house in Bangkok you need to factor in 2% per year just to cover the Thai inflation. A real life example is my friend in Bangkok who purchased a condo 10 years ago for 8 million baht (258,000 baht). He finally managed to sell it, after being on the market for 3 years for 9.3 million baht a 16% gain which translated to 258,000 baht due to exchange rates, which you always have to consider. After inflation he is looking at a paper 15/17% loss over 10 years. And yes I understand that in this period he has not been having to pay rental costs so living basically rent free. But as he said, if he were to buy a new replacement condo he is looking at 11.5 to 13 million to get a compatible condo unit . As an aside the condo opposite me, completed in 2018 still have 8 remaining new units available today at the original 2018 price.

Regarding the utuber going for PR he has posted an update today. Scroll to 5 minutes to miss the drivel. He also has an interesting take on the new tax rules near the end. What annoys me is that people take life changing decisions on guys like this. His site has a link to the law firm he uses.

In the 70's and 80's there was a company that did a train run to Penang weekly to collect groceries from Penang, primarily to service restaurant owners in Pattaya of Western items unavailable locally. Unfortunately to to the rising standard of living in Malaysia this service lost it's cost advantage. As a 450 g tin of baked beans is available today at the equivalent of 34 baht in Malaysia, perhaps the service could be restarted. Today I spent 1550 baht in Big C. Exactly the same items in Cold Storage Singapore would be 1400 baht. In Lotus Malaysia it was 1360 baht. In Asda UK it was 998 baht using current exchange rates.

Regarding a link to the person claiming he is entitled to PR due to being "rich" and married to Thai. I have been reluctant to say who it is as he is an eight year veteran of Thailand who has a very limited knowledge of things Thai. His site is notime2besad. But I must warn you that you will have to trawl through 29 minutes of drivel per vlog to extract 1 minute of his reasoning for PR. The strangest thing is that he pays a retainer of 700 baht a month to a Bangkok law firm so I would assume they are advising him accordingly. Or do they know the back door to PR? For you to understand his knowledge of things Thai his last vlog stated he is going to Bangkok to get his US passport translated to Thai so that he can be added to his FIL's house blue book. He also mentioned that his Falang friends house is available for sale with a 90 year lease.

Vinfast have announced they will be entering the EV market in Thailand. They will be selling fully built up cars as they fall under the AFTA trade agreements and are not subject to Thai import tax. They have 15 dealers with 22 showrooms nationwide.